(introduction...)

Five innovations in multi-grade teaching over the past two decades
in developing countries are presented in this chapter. The first two
experiences, from Zambia and Colombia, have addressed the multi-grade reality of
rural primary schools directly. The Zambian experience is less than ten years
old and relatively small-scale. The Colombian experience spans three decades and
is large-scale. Both have involved external agencies and support from the
government mainstream. The third experience, from Peru, describes the
multi-grade reality found among indigenous communities and the recent
involvement of NGOs in teacher education programmes oriented towards multi-grade
teaching. The fourth, from Sri Lanka, illustrates how some solutions to the
problems faced by the multi-grade teacher are being offered on a small scale
through the recognition that even mono-grade classes contain very wide
differences in achievement and that a single grade may be conceived as a
multi-grade context. The final experience draws on innovations in rural primary
education in several countries. Project Impact began as a radical reform of
primary education in Indonesia and the Philippines and expanded subsequently to
Liberia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Jamaica. Although not oriented exclusively to
the problems of multi-grade classes, many of the features of the innovation
offered solutions to
them.